Egypt aims to offer $3B-to-$7B in int’l bonds during 19/20

CAIRO – 9 September 2019: Egypt targets to offer $3 billion to $7 billion in international bonds in the current fiscal year 2019/2020, Minister of Finance Mohamed Ma’it said on the sidelines of Euromoney conference.

Ma'it added that his country is interested in offering bonds in Chinese yuan, but more requirements need to be met.

The ministry affirmed that the diversing the issuance of bonds in various currencies aims to achieve hedging within its portfolio of international bonds, especially in light of the rise or fall of the dollar from time to time.

He pointed out that his country is keen to attract investors from different markets for the bond market, citing all the promotional campaigns carried out by the Ministry of Finance in a number of Asian countries, most importantly Japan, Korea and the UAE.

In August, two government sources told Enterprise that the Ministry of Finance is reconsidering the issuance of bonds dominated in local currency in international markets.

The sources pointed out that the ministry has not yet decided the size and timing of the planned offering, but they are likely to proceed with the process early 2020, depending on the market conditions and investors' appetite for Egyptian debt instruments.

Egypt postponed the bond offering in 2018 after the emerging markets' crisis.

Egypt's external debt rose 9.9 percent in the first quarter of 2019, compared to $106.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018, and $96.6 billion at the end of 2018, according to the Central Bank's data.

In February, Egypt issued international bonds worth $4 billion in three categories that were five times oversubscribed, the Ministry of Finance announced.

The dollar-denominated bonds come with maturities of 5, 10 and 30 years in a sale and will be offered at high revenues, as the subscriptions exceeded $21.5 billion.

In October 2018, Ma’it launched a pan-Asian roadshow to promote international bonds in the South Korean capital, Seoul. The promotion campaign continued in November in several important Asian markets, topped by Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China and Japan.